Bitcoin experienced a sudden spike in transaction fees and unconfirmed transactions which caused concern on Crypto Twitter over a potential Denial of Service (DoS) attack on the network.
Bitcoin's average transaction fees are currently $19.20, and the backlog of transactions stands at 459,341, causing total fees per block to temporarily exceed the block subsidy reward of 6.25 BTC on May 7.
This surge in demand on the network has been attributed to the rise in Taproot usage for on-chain transactions, resulting in a record high.
Some on Crypto Twitter speculated that the recent congestion resulted from a DoS attack on the network, but Bitcoin analysts quickly pointed out that it was due to demand rather than a premeditated attack.
The proof-of-work mining process has a set block subsidy of 6.25 BTC which halves every four years, but in rare instances, block space demand surges, causing higher transaction fees.
The surge in activity and block space demand caused fees of 6.76 BTC to be recorded for one block, and block 788695 generated fees of 6.7 BTC, the first time this has happened since 2017.
Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, suspended Bitcoin transactions twice in the past twelve hours due to the large volume of pending transactions.